Help

Newsletter

Gene Frenette: Who is face of the Jaguars' franchise? It's not a player

Bob.Mack@jacksonville.com Jaguars owner Shad Khan (center) and coach Gus Bradley greet wide receiver Cecil Shorts after a practice. Khan and Bradley were the top choices of 10 veteran Jaguars players as the face of the franchise.

Bruce.Lipsky@jacksonville.com Jaguars rookie quarterback Blake Bortles could become the face of the franchise if he develops as the team hopes.

As the Jaguars embark on their 20th season, midway through a long-term rebuild with no timetable on when, or if, it’ll bear fruit, one question with no clear-cut answer hovers over this organization:

Who is the face of the franchise?

In that inaugural 1995 season, it was unquestionably Tom Coughlin, the coach/GM/dictator who ruled the operation with an iron fist. When the Jaguars followed with a four-year playoff run that included two AFC championship game appearances, quarterback Mark Brunell, offensive tackle Tony Boselli, receiver Jimmy Smith and tailback Fred Taylor became the star attractions.

Since then, over a 14-year span that resulted in just one playoff win, the only players instantly associated with the Jaguars were probably Taylor and his successor, Maurice Jones-Drew, though quarterback David Garrard certainly had name recognition.

With Jones-Drew now an Oakland Raider, and the quarterback position still unsettled, the Jaguars have no indisputable face of the franchise. Unless you’re the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks, where several candidates (Russell Wilson, Richard Sherman, Marshawn Lynch, Pete Carroll) qualify to be on that Mount Rushmore, it’s not necessarily a good problem for a team starving to make a name for itself.

“That’s a tough question. I think it’s still yet to be seen,” Jaguars tight end Marcedes Lewis said when asked who he thought was the face of the franchise. “That’ll play out the way it’s going to play out. We don’t know.”

I put that question to 10 returning Jaguars veterans, and only one consensus was reached about who they believed was the organization’s most iconic face — it’s either owner Shad Khan or coach Gus Bradley.

“I’d say Gus because of what he’s created here and the culture he’s developed,” fullback Will Ta’ufo’ou said. “What he’s defining our team as is crucial to our future, how we play, who we become.”

The bigger point is, not one player named a teammate as the face of the franchise, and that’s a function of where the Jaguars stand at the moment. No player, including a quarterback, has reached iconic status since Jones-Drew won the 2011 rushing title on a 5-11 team.

Several players — receiver Cecil Shorts, along with defensive linemen Sen’Derrick Marks and Andre Branch — felt it wasn’t absolutely necessary for the Jaguars to have an indisputable franchise face to become successful. They point to the Seahawks, a blueprint Bradley wants to adopt, as a prime example.

“I think right now we have [different] faces of the franchise, and I like it that way,” said Shorts. “We’re all kind of in this together.”

Maybe so, but if you look around the NFL, nearly all of the successful teams have a consensus face of the franchise. And it’s usually an established quarterback.

That’s true for the three organizations with the highest winning percentages in the last five years (New England, Tom Brady; New Orleans, Drew Brees; Green Bay, Aaron Rodgers). It also applies to Denver (Peyton Manning), Indianapolis (Andrew Luck), Pittsburgh (Ben Roethlisberger) and Baltimore (Joe Flacco). Those seven franchises have combined for 27 playoff appearances since 2009.

While Bradley may envision the Jaguars as being Seattle South, the truth is the best thing that could happen to this franchise is for Blake Bortles to do exactly what those aforementioned quarterbacks have all done.

Chad Henne is the likely starter when the 2014 season opens, but the Jaguars made Bortles the No. 3 overall pick for one reason: to become that franchise face for a long time. Much of the hope for the Jaguars’ long-term future lies with him.

“Right now, it’s Shad Khan. He’s the man,” said placekicker Josh Scobee, the longest-tenured Jaguar with 10 seasons in Jacksonville. “He’s putting us on the map off the field, for all the things he’s doing for the team with the stadium upgrades and what he’s done in the city.

“We haven’t had that real face of the franchise for a while. Hopefully, that’ll be Blake [Bortles]. So far, I think he’s taking steps in the right direction to become that type of person.”

Khan, a deep-pocketed owner with an iconic handlebar moustache, has earned a lot of respect for his emotional and financial commitment to elevating the Jaguars’ brand. But if this team wants to reach its goal of being a perennial playoff contender, a star player needs to emerge as the face of the franchise.